THE FIRST 100 DAYS: Specter's Switch Is a Nail In Clueless GOP Coffin

I was writing that the GOP was off to a worse start than President Obama when the Arlen Specter news broke yesterday. How timely. His switching parties on Day 99 of the Obama administration is more than just another illustration of GOP woes.

Specter's switch is a nail in Republicans' coffin. Now they're not merely disorganized and demoralized, they're in Siberia.

Even facing a conservative primary challenge next year, Specter was a shaky Republican and provided one of three GOP votes Obama got on the stimulus bill. With incentives now to tilt further left so he can win election as a Democrat in increasingly-blue Pennsylvania, Specter's flip will haunt his old party.

It was already clueless about how to respond to Obama and the economy, a fact largely obscured by the media focus on the president. His first 100 days are far from perfect, but they are far better than the Republicans'.

Two years after losing Congress and six months after losing the White House, Republicans have yet to find a consistent principle they can articulate and rally the public around. Until they do, Dems will continue to score by deriding them as the "party of no."